Eric Salzman (September 8, 1933 – November 12, 2017) was an American composer , scholar , author, impresario , music critic , and record producer . He is best known for his contributions to 'New Music Theater,' a concept he advanced through both his compositions and writings. He established it as an independent art form, distinct from grand opera and popular musicals , both aesthetically and economically. He co-founded the American Music Theater Festival and was, at the time of his death in 2017, Composer-in-Residence at the Center for Contemporary Opera .
44-999: Salzman's one true opera, Big Jim and the Small-Time Investors (written and revised between 1985 and 2017), was developed in workshops at CCO in 2010 and 2014. It received its world-premiere production at Symphony Space in 2018, five months after his death, praised by Opera News as "truly a fine piece of post-modern creative work." Performers of his works include the New York Philharmonic , BBC Symphony Orchestra , Minnesota Orchestra , Brooklyn Philharmonic ; conductors Pierre Boulez , Stanisław Skrowaczewski , Dennis Russell Davies and Lukas Foss ; ensembles Western Wind and Kronos Quartet ; soloists Philip Langridge , Mary Thomas , Elise Ross, Stanley Silverman , Alan Titus , Rinde Eckert, Igor Kipnis , Paul Zukofsky , Theo Bleckmann , Thomas Young ; actors Stacy Keach , John O'Hurley and Paul Hecht . Salzman
88-518: A Stereo Review Award for Record of the Year and was featured prominently in the films Scent of a Woman (1992) and True Lies (1994). The album has been credited for bringing attention to tango music both in Argentina and internationally. Salzman also produced several recordings featuring the music of Harry Partch and William Bolcom , as well as his own music. According to Salzman's writing,
132-681: A ballroom and community hall called Arlington Hall, which hosted weddings, dances, political events and union meetings, among many other events. In 1914 a shootout between "Dopey" Benny Fein 's Jewish gang and Jack Sirocco 's Italian mob, an event that marked the beginning of the predominance of the Italian American gangsters over the Jewish American gangsters, took place in the hall. Arlington Hall also had some notable speakers including Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt (1895) and William Randolph Hearst (1905). During
176-472: A capella radio opera and the music drama Lazarus (1973), combining contemporary and medieval elements, which appeared at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in 1974 before touring in Europe. Salzman created numerous theatrical works with the musician Michael Sahl, with both artists generally serving as co-composer and co-librettist. Among their many collaborations were The Conjurer (1975) which premiered at
220-565: A failure. In 1917, Astor sold the market to Thomas J. Healy . The stalls were demolished and the main space was converted into the Crystal Palace, a skating rink, and the smaller basement area became the Sunken Gardens, a restaurant. Both were eventually turned into movie theaters. The rink became Symphony Theater and in 1931 the restaurant was turned into Thalia Theater. Symphony Theater had an undistinguished history, and by
264-763: A free marathon concert, Wall to Wall Bach, held on January 9, 1978, organized by Isaiah Sheffer and Alan Miller. From 1978 to 2001, the theater hosted all of the New York productions by the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players . As of 2010, Symphony Space hosts 600 or more events annually, including an annual free music Wall to Wall marathon; Bloomsday on Broadway (celebrating James Joyce 's Ulysses ); and Selected Shorts , broadcast nationally over Public Radio International . The New York company of Revels, Inc., also holds its shows there. From 1915 to 1917, Vincent Astor spent $ 750,000 of his personal fortune on
308-465: A mixed-media performing group, which included accordionist William Schimmel and percussionist David Van Tieghem . The ensemble performed many of Salzman's works, including Ecolog , a music theater piece for television (premiered on Channel 13 ), which received its live premiere at the New York Philharmonic 's "Prospective Encounters" series in 1972, as conducted by Boulez . With Quog, Salzman experimented with theatrical forms and ensembles, creating an
352-491: A period. The Electric Circus is mentioned (as a spontaneously fabricated supposed avant garde novel) in the television show “Succession” (S2 E5 approx. 20m). The actual club is depicted in a scene of Mad Men season 6, episode 3 (" To Have and To Hold ", set in early 1968), during which Joan Harris and her friend Kate go out on the town. The Electric Circus is also mentioned in Andrew Holleran’s novel Dancer from
396-776: A short time as Le Cinematographe and later as Soho Playhouse. In 2017, the theater and apartments above were reportedly on the market. Electric Circus (nightclub) The Electric Circus was a nightclub located at 19-25 St. Marks Place between Second and Third Avenues in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan , New York City , from 1967 to August 1971. The club was created by Jerry Brandt , Stanton J. Freeman and their partners and designed by Chermayeff & Geismar . With its invitation (from one of its press releases) to "play games, dress as you like, dance, sit, think, tune in and turn on," and its mix of light shows, music, circus performers and experimental theater,
440-520: A sometime manager of the Velvet Underground – rented the venue, redecorated its interior, and turned it into a nightclub. The Velvet Underground was the house band , and their performances under Andy Warhol's influence were accompanied by many light effects with the added touches of projected movies and projected photographs, all going on at the same time. The experience was called the " Exploding Plastic Inevitable " and they soon took
484-819: The Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome with Goffredo Petrassi and at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in Darmstadt with Karlheinz Stockhausen , Bruno Maderna , and Luigi Nono . In 1958, he returned to the United States and began a career as a music critic , writing for The New York Times (1958–62), the New York Herald Tribune (1962–66), and Stereo Review (from 1966 until 1998 when it became Sound and Vision ). While at
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#1732791897158528-511: The Astor Market , a two-storey mini-mall of stands occupying the southwest corner of 95th and Broadway. The intention was to sell fruit, meat, fish, produce, and flowers at inexpensive prices, achieved through large economies of scale. As was common with Astor's building projects, flamboyance dominated the architecture, including a 290-foot William Mackay sgraffito frieze depicting farmers bringing their goods to market. The market proved
572-514: The Electric Circus from 1967 until 1968. He served as music director of WBAI -FM (Pacifica Radio) from 1962 until 1964, and again from 1968 until 1972, winning a Major Armstrong Award for broadcasting. He interviewed numerous artists, including Stefan Wolpe and Edgard Varèse , and was himself interviewed by Virgil Thomson as the special guest on Thomson's radio program for WNCN-FM in 1970. Through his work at WBAI, where he founded
616-644: The Hal Prince production of Kurt Weill 's The Silver Lake with the New York City Opera conducted by Julius Rudel (1980) and The Unknown Kurt Weill , featuring Teresa Stratas (1991). He produced the Nonesuch album The Tango Project (1991) and the two follow-up Tango Project albums, Two to Tango and The Palm Court . The first Tango Project album, for which Salzman and his collaborators transcribed Carlos Gardel 's Por una Cabeza , won
660-730: The Pratt Institute , Victory Theater , WNYC , Theater for the New City , KCRW (Santa Monica), Quog Music Theater, and the American Music Theater Festival. In 1984, Salzman founded the American Music Theater Festival with Marjorie Samoff and Ron Kaiserman. The festival's advisory council included Stephen Sondheim , Milton Babbitt , Philip Glass , and Leonard Bernstein . For the opening, Salzman reconstructed and adapted
704-547: The "New Image of Sound" series at Hunter College , where his theatrical composition Verses and Cantos (or Foxes and Hedgehogs ) was performed for the inaugural concert conducted by Dennis Russell Davies alongside the New York premiere of Berio's Laborintus II . In 1972, Pierre Boulez conducted the piece with the BBC Symphony Orchestra . In 1970, Salzman founded the Quog Music Theater,
748-599: The 1920s, the buildings were bought by the Polish National Home, which combined them with 25 St. Marks Place for use by Polish organizations and a Polish restaurant. By the 1960s, the bohemianism and nightlife previously associated with New York's Greenwich Village was growing in what would later be called the East Village. The Polish National Home was turned into the Dom Restaurant –
792-853: The 1927 antiwar satire Strike up the Band by George and Ira Gershwin . The production was directed by Frank Corsaro and conducted by Maurice Peress at the Walnut Street Theatre . Salzman was co-director of the Festival until 1993. Notable productions during his tenure include Anthony Davis' X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X ; Julie Taymor , Elliot Goldenthal , and Sidney Goldfarb 's The Transposed Heads ; Duke Ellington 's Queenie Pie ; Emily Mann , Ntozake Shange , and Baikida Carroll 's Betsy Brown ; Bob Telson and Lee Breuer 's The Gospel at Colonus ; David Henry Hwang , Philip Glass , and Jerome Sirlin's 1000 Airplanes on
836-409: The 1970s was used for boxing and wrestling. The site was used for Wall to Wall Bach, and led Sheffer and Miller to lease the building and form Symphony Space. The Thalia Theater was built by the experienced theater architect Raymond Irrera, and his novice assistant, Ben Schlanger . Schlanger introduced numerous innovations, including the "reverse parabolic" design for the floor. After World War II ,
880-571: The 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Peter Norton Symphony Space) or the 160-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia. Programs include music, dance, theater, film, and literary readings. In addition, Symphony Space provides literacy programs and the Curriculum Arts Project, which integrates performing arts into social studies curricula in New York City Public Schools . Symphony Space traces its beginnings to
924-638: The Art Deco interior gutted as unsalvageable, angering some neighborhood preservationists. The interior was used as a staging area for construction of a 22-story apartment building above Symphony Space. Afterwards the interior was rebuilt as a theater again, and in 2002 the space was re-opened as the Leonard Nimoy Thalia, acknowledging the actor's financing. A sister movie theater to the original uptown Thalia, Thalia Soho, continued from 1987 until owner Richard Schwarz's death, then operated for
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#1732791897158968-643: The Band , which was performed several times in Quimper and Paris between 2000 and 2002. This led to a commission from L'Orchestre du Sciences-Po for a chamber orchestra suite based on the work. In 1980, Salzman composed and conducted instrumental music and song for Yuri Rasovsky 's Peabody Award -winning audio dramatization of Homer 's Odyssey for the National Radio Theater . The Kronos Quartet 's 1997 album, Early Music , featured Salzman's arrangement of John Cage 's Totem Ancestor . This
1012-577: The Electric Circus embodied the wild and creative side of 1960s club culture. Flame throwing jugglers and trapeze artists performed between musical sets, strobe lights flashed over a huge dance floor, and multiple projectors flashed images and footage from home movies. Seating was varied, with sofas provided. The Electric Circus became "New York's ultimate mixed-media pleasure dome, and its hallucinogenic light baths enthralled every sector of New York society." Its hedonistic atmosphere also influenced
1056-607: The Family Stone , and The Chambers Brothers . The cavernous ballroom space with a balcony originally consisted of four buildings built in 1831 as townhouses. When the neighborhood gradually became the heart of Little Germany , with a population of German immigrant workers, #19 and 21 were purchased in 1870 by the Arlon Club, a German music society, for their clubhouse. The club moved, and a real estate developer bought 19, 21, and 23 between 1887 and 1888 and merged them into
1100-502: The Free Music Store organized formal performances of ragtime music, presenting concerts featuring Eubie Blake and others. Salzman left the Free Music Store in 1972, though the Free Music Store continued operating in various locations under the leadership of Ira Weitzman . From 1975 to 1990, Salzman produced and directed over two dozen recordings, mainly for Nonesuch Records , including two Grammy Award -nominated records:
1144-475: The Free Music Store, Salzman was approached by Joseph Papp in 1968 to create concerts for the then-vacant Martinson Hall at The Public Theater . As a result, the Free Music Store presented free concerts in Martinson Hall until Papp evicted the group in 1971. The Free Music Store provided a platform for musicians who wanted to explore new musical projects while foregoing compensation. Among many programs,
1188-1038: The Herald Tribune in 1964 Salzman was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship to cover concerts in Europe. During the Fellowship (1964–65), Salzman was based in Paris . He won the Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang Prize for Critics of the Fine Arts in 1969, an award previously given to Harold Clurman and subsequently to Hilton Kramer . The judges were Aaron Copland , Vladimir Ussachevsky , and Stanisław Skrowaczewski , who cited his writing for Stereo Review. He also worked as contributing editor and critic for Opera News , Opera , Neue Zeitschrift der Musik , New York Magazine , and other publications in Germany, France, and England. Salzman founded and ran The Electric Ear at
1232-636: The Internationaal Opera Centrum Nederland, starring Theo Bleckmann as Dutch Schultz . Also in 1997, the Théâtre Max Jacob in Quimper premiered Salzman's work, La Prière du loup , which had been commissioned by Un Théâtre pour la Musique and Scène National de Quimper and was directed by Michel Rostain , who wrote the libretto . They then commissioned Salzman to write another version of Gershwin's Strike Up
1276-625: The Public Theater under the direction of Tom O'Horgan , and Civilization and Its Discontents , a music theater comedy which premiered at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in 1977. Civilization and Its Discontents toured Europe extensively, was recorded for National Public Radio and Nonesuch records, and won the Prix Italia and a Backstage Award. Other Sahl/Salzman collaborations were produced in partnership with
1320-655: The Roof ; Robert Xavier Rodriguez ' Frida , Harry Partch 's Revelation in the Courthouse Park ; William Bolcom 's Casino Paradise ; and a 1987 production of Salzman's and Sahl's 1976 work, Stauf , a music theater version of Faust directed by Rhoda Levine . From 2000 until 2012, Salzman was Artistic Director of the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York City and served as Composer-in-Residence for
1364-571: The Thalia gained a reputation as an arty repertory film theater. Its regular patrons included Woody Allen , Peter Bogdanovich , and Martin Scorsese . Woody Allen used it in Annie Hall . The Thalia closed in 1987, its future clouded by disputes between Symphony Space and various developers. After Symphony Space won, the Thalia reopened briefly in 1993 and again in 1996. In 1999, Sheffer had
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1408-847: The company. The Center for Contemporary Opera presented the United States premiere of Salzman's La Prière du loup (2003) and The True Last Words of Dutch Schultz ( Symphony Space , 2007), and workshops of other works, including Big Jim & the Small-time Investors at The Flea Theater (2010) and the Faison Firehouse Theater (2014). Among the major works which were produced at the Center for Contemporary Opera during Salzman's tenure are Michael Dellaira and J. D. McClatchy 's The Secret Agent and Daron Hagen and Paul Muldoon 's Vera of Las Vegas . In 1997 True Last Words of Dutch Schultz had its world premiere at
1452-555: The future of opera and musical theater lies in economically viable, small-scale theater where music is the dominant driving force. This concept is evident in Salzman's early works, such as: The Nonesuch recording of Nude Paper Sermon was chosen separately by both Dennis Báthory-Kitsz and David Gunn , creators and hosts of the Kalvos & Damian New Music Bazaar , for their "Top 100" desert island recordings. In 1967, Salzman founded
1496-500: The later rise of disco culture and discotheques . Experimental bands such as The Velvet Underground , jam bands such as The Grateful Dead , soul acts such as Ike & Tina Turner , and avant-garde composers such as minimalist Terry Riley and electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick played at the club. Other bands played there before they were famous, such as Raven , the Allman Brothers Band , Sly &
1540-544: The name came from the Polish for "home", derived from Polski Dom Narodowy ("Polish National Home") – with Stanley Tolkin's "Stanley's Bar" – where The Fugs played in the mid-1960s – downstairs, slightly below street level. Jackie Cassen and Rudi Stern began leasing the ballroom on the floor above Stanley's Bar for their "Theater of Light" show. Then in 1966 artist Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey – who directed many of Warhol's films, and who became
1584-577: The new music theater movement, "Music-Theater Defined: It's ... Well... Um..." The Eric Salzman Award for New Music Theater was established in 2018 by the Quog Music Theater and the Estate of Eric Salzman. The inaugural award was adjudicated by Marcus Paus , Victoria Bond and Scott Joiner , and was given to Marisa Michelson and Anna K. Jacobs. Salzman was married to environmental activist, writer, and Green Party founding member Lorna Salzman (née Jackson) from 1955 until his death. They had two daughters,
1628-509: The poet Eva Salzman and composer/songwriter Stephanie Salzman . Salzman was an avid birdwatcher and an expert in bird calls of Eastern Long Island . He died on November 12, 2017, from a heart attack, aged 84. Symphony Space Symphony Space , founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan . Performances take place in
1672-597: The show on the road. Later in 1966 the club, under different management by Albert Grossman, was briefly called the Balloon Farm and in 1967 the lease was transferred to Brandt Freeman Int'l, Ltd. the General partner of The Electric Circus Company. Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys was engaged as one of the first house bands under the new management. By 1970 the "tune in, turn on" hippie culture
1716-447: The student, Ishmael Brown, who reportedly planted the bomb. After the Electric Circus closed, the building no longer functioned as a club or space for regular public performances, but the building was not significantly physically altered until 2003 when a major renovation eliminated the ballroom and converted the building into upscale apartments and retail space. In the 1980s the building was used as an Alcoholics Anonymous dry disco for
1760-805: Was born September 8, 1933, in New York City and attended Forest Hills High School (1946–1950). After studying composition privately (1949–51) with Morris Lawner, who taught at the New York High School of Music and Art , he continued his studies at Columbia University (1954 Bachelor of Arts ), majoring in music and minoring in literature. At Columbia, his teachers included Jack Beeson , Lionel Trilling , Otto Luening , and Vladimir Ussachevsky . He pursued postgraduate work at Princeton University (1956 master of fine arts ) with Milton Babbitt , Roger Sessions , Earl Kim , Edward T. Cone , Arthur Mendel , Oliver Strunk , and Nino Pirrotta . A Fulbright Fellowship (1956 – 58) enabled him to study at
1804-825: Was editor of The Musical Quarterly from 1984 to 1991. His teaching appointments have included positions at Queens College, City University of New York (1966–68), the Institute for Studies in American Music , and guest faculty/lecturer at Tisch School of the Arts , the Music Theater Program at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Yale University School of Music, the Conservatoire Nationale de Lyon , and other institutions. In 1966, he
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1848-592: Was in decline. When a small bomb, reportedly planted by a member of the Black Panther Party exploded on the dance floor on March 22, 1970, injuring 15 people, the negative publicity accelerated the decline of the club; it closed a year and a half later in August 1971. According to an AP news story that appeared in the Toledo Blade on March 31, 1970, the Black Panther Party denied any connection to
1892-874: Was invited by Friedelind Wagner to present several lectures at the Bayreuth Festival as part of the Master Classes on contemporary music in the theater He wrote The New Music Theater: Seeing the Voice, Hearing the Body with Thomas Desi ( Oxford University Press , 2008) and Twentieth Century Music: An Introduction ( Prentice Hall , 1967; 4th edition, 2001), which has become a widely used textbook in university courses on modern music. He also wrote Making Changes: A Practical Guide to Vernacular Harmony with Michael Sahl ( G. Schirmer Inc. , 1986), in addition to articles in various publications. He published an essay on
1936-650: Was part of a suite of five of Cage's pieces for prepared piano arranged by Salzman for string quartet or string orchestra , published by C.F. Peters . Salzman's more recent work includes the madrigal comedy Jukebox in the Tavern of Love , with text and stage direction by Valeria Vasilevski. The piece was commissioned by the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble and performed at the Flea Theater in 2008, then Brooklyn's Bargemusic in 2009. Salzman
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